Introduction
There are many things that shape a city such as culture, demand, and the vision of the city from the designer, but none are more instant and long lasting then disasters. London is one city that in this it is apparent and thus it is the topic for this essay. In order to demonstrate that the impact that disasters have on a city are the greatest shaping tools, I will focus of the Great London fire of 1666 and the Great Stink of 1858 and compare them to the Industrial revolution of 1760. I will give a short background history of the disasters combined with the direct effects that the disaster had on the city then continue to how the city then changed to combat that type of disaster.
Disasters history
The Great Fire of London
One can’t discuss the history of London without including the Great Fire of London. As many know, in September 1666 the city of London was devastated by a fire. The long hot summer joined with the largely timber construction of London left it only needing a spark which was provided at the house of Thomas Farynor, the king's baker in Pudding Lane, near London Bridge on Sunday the 2nd September.
The buildings at the time were only divided by narrow streets and therefore the fire spread rapidly. (See Figure 1) Luckily for Southwark and surrounding areas, London Bridge, which was burning by dawn, acted as a firebreak. Only a third of the bridge was burned confining the fire to the City of London. By the following dawn the fire spread north and west, consuming Grace Church Street, Lombard Street, the Royal Exchange, and continuing towards the wealthy area of Cheapside. That night the fire continued toward St Paul's Cathedral.
The following day saw the greatest destruction. With Both the King and the...
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4. Charles Inselin sculpt., (1700), Plan des Villes de Londres et de Westminster et de leurs Faubourgs avec le Bourg de Southwark. Par de Fer Avec Priv du Roy 1700 [ONLINE]. Available at:http://mapco.net/london/1700london.htm [Accessed 25 March 14].
5. Anonymous, (1767), A Plan Of The Cities Of London And Westminster, And Borough Of Southwark, With The New Buildings 1767 [ONLINE]. Available at: http://mapco.net/anon/anon.htm [Accessed 25 March 14].
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Morgan, Edmund S. The birth of the Republic, 1763-89. Chicago London. The University of Chicago Press.1956.
Hitchcock, Henry Russell. Early Victorian Architecture in Britain Volumes I and II. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1954.
Transformation of London in the 1790s. Many changes occurred in London during the 1790s. New ideas were emerging within England and around the world. The onset of the French Revolution contributed greatly to the unrest and the turmoil of the times.
...rting again. The fire itself was seen for miles and the heat was so intense that there was “hardly a building within a one block radius that was not scorched” (Reporter Front Page). Extinguished fire brands were found in all parts of the Eastern section of the city. Some brands were even found in Lakeside Park. The force of the gas explosions in the garage blew debris from E 2nd and Marr to half way down Ellis St. This shows just how large the fire actually was.
Starr, Kevin. “The Great Earthquake and Firestorms of 1906: How San Francisco Nearly Destroyed Itself.” University of California Press. 83:3 (2006): 45-61. Web. 16 April. 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25161821
Over the course of this semester I’ve read The Late Victorian Holocausts by Mike Davis in which he discusses the cross-global history of the devastating famines and natural disasters that effected significant portions of the world in the late 19th century. In reading through the chapters it made clear to me that Davis placed the blame on a number of factors. However, in this paper I will only be discussing three that I found to have the most significance.
All throughout London’s essay, one sees that he focus’ on the destruction of the city in the 1906 earthquake. He defines the city as, “wiped out” and “all gone” which gives his essay a fearful and defeated tone at the beginning. London goes on to define the city as it is alive, “half the heart of the city was gone”. In paragraph five he again explains the city to be alive, “Wednesday night saw the destruction of
middle of paper ... ... Bolton, Arthur T. The architecture of Robert & James Adam. London, Country Life. 1922.
In 1834, when a fire nearly completely demolished the old Palace of Westminster, Britain had a chance to redefine what British architecture was (Richardson p. 111-112). Although throughout Europe Classicism and the Greek and Roman Revival had had a stronghold on secular buildings, by the early 1800 Neo-Gothic was starting to be seen as a nationalistic style of architecture, something that should, together with language, be national (Barry, p.114). While in France the Gothic Revival was mainly used for secular buildings, in Britain it was mainly used for ecclesiastical buildings (Barry, p. 110). It was into this world that August Welby Nothmore Pugin (1812-52) was born.
This book follows an esteemed doctor and a local clergyman who, together, are the heart of an investigation to solve the mystery of the cholera epidemic. In 1854 London was ravaged by a terrible outbreak of cholera, where within the span of mere weeks over five hundred people in the Soho district died. London, at the time, was a city of around two and a half million people, all crammed into a small area with no system for sewage removal. With overflowing cesspools, improper drainage of all the human and animal waste, and no system for guaranteed clean water, the people of London were in a bad state. They were essentially dumping all of their feces into their drinking water supply, a perfect environment for cholera to thrive.
Throughout recorded history, fires have been known to cause great loss of life, property, and knowledge. The Great Fire of London was easily one of the worst fires mankind has ever seen causing large scale destruction and terror. Samuel Pepys described the fire as “A most malicious bloody flame, as one entire arch of fire of above a mile long… the churches, houses and all on fire and flaming at once, and a horrid noise the flames made.” (Britain Express 1).
To build his magnificent hall, Holte got John Thorpe to design and construct it. John Thorpe was seen as a fashionable architect in those days and only the people with wealth would be able to use him and this too, showed off Sir Thomas’s wealth. Sir Thomas met John when he was in London during his us...
Riding, Christine; Riding, Jacqueline, eds. (2000). The Houses of Parliament: History, Art, Architecture. London: Merrell Publishers. ISBN 978-1858941127.
Historical geographer JB Harley wrote an essay on Map Deconstruction in 1989, in which Harley argues that a map is more than just a geographical representation of an area, his theory is that we need to look at a map not just as a geographical image but in its entire context. Harley points out that by an examination of the social structures that have influenced map making, that we may gain more knowledge about the world. The maps social construction is made from debate about what it should show. Harley broke away from the traditional argument about maps and examined the biases that govern the map and the map makers, by looking at what the maps included or excluded. Harley’s “basic argument within this essay is that we should encourage an epistemological shift in the way we interpret the nature of cartography.” Therefore Harley’s aim within his essay on ‘Deconstructing the Map’ was to break down the assumed ideas of a map being a purely scientific creation.
Cowie, Leonard W. “Plague and Fire London 1665-1666.” East Sussex: Wayland Publishers, 1970. 56-63. Print.